Pitt of Despair; Steelers’ Offense Struggles Once Again in Blowout Loss to the Houston Texans
Photo Credit: Joe Sargent
Coming off of an inspiring offensive performance against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday Night Football, optimism seemed to grow for some Steeler fans as it looked like the team may have solved their offensive woes. Kenny Pickett completed more than 50% of his passes for 2 TDs and 0 INTs after a brutal first two weeks of the season, and it also helped that RBs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren got a healthy slice of the offensive action as well. As the saying goes: everything that goes up tends to come back down; a brutal yet accurate description for how the Steelers offense fared against the Texans on Sunday.
After Pickett ended the game with just 114 yards and 1 INT on 23 pass attempts, tension from fans of the black and gold faithful about their offense sputtering stirred right back up. The Houston Texans are a team still in the thick of a rebuild, starting a rookie QB in C.J. Stroud, and having won just 11 contests in total over the past three seasons. On top of this, Stroud was sitting behind an offensive line missing four starters for the day up against a sack hungry defense in Pittsburgh led by star defensive end T.J. Watt. As one might expect, Houston wasn’t exactly favored to win their game against Pittsburgh, let alone control it completely for four quarters of play. Not only did the Steelers offense fail to move the ball well, but perhaps more shocking was the way that Stroud and company moved the ball themselves. The Young QB posted 306 passing yards and 2 TDs on just 16 completions, with receiver Nico Collins accounting for both of those scores and 168 receiving yards all on his own.
Photo Credit: Troy Taormina
In wake of this outcome, it’s safe to say that Steelers fans haven’t been pleased with the way the season has begun thus far. Most of the blame for the offensive struggles has been placed onto Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada, who to the dismay of most fans doesn’t seem to be leaving the team anytime soon. This game against Houston marked the third time in four games this season that the Steelers have failed to crack 300 yards of total offense, and put Pittsburgh at an average Yards Per-Game total of 263.0, 29th out of 32 teams in the NFL.
With Pickett suffering a minor knee injury in the loss and a pivotal matchup against division rival Baltimore on the horizon, the Steelers will have to find ways to fix their offensive woes in a hurry if they’re to avoid falling further behind in a very competitive AFC North. In the meantime, if no further changes can be expected in terms of who’s running the offense, all fans can do at this point is hope that their performance against Las Vegas wasn’t just a flash in the pan, and that the defense can continue to hold their own for the team should the offense continue to stay in neutral.
